Australia 1300 888 225 New Zealand 0800 440 055 [email protected] From $9,422 CAD Single Room $11,026 CAD Twin Room $9,422 CAD Prices valid until 30th December 2021 15 days Duration South Australia Destination Level 2 - Moderate Activity Eyre & Yorke Peninsulas, and the Gawler Ranges Mar 06 2022 to Mar 20 2022 Two Peninsulas and a Mountain Range: Eyre, Yorke Peninsula’s and the Gawler Ranges This Outback Australian tour is limited to 15 travellers. A small group tour to the Yorke Peninsula, Eyre Peninsula, and the Gawler Ranges is designed for mature and senior travellers, travelling as a couple or single traveller, to discover the hidden gems of South Australia. You’re likely (rightly) familiar with the wine regions of the Barossa Valley , Clare Valley and McLaren Vale, the pristine scenery of Kangaroo Island, and the outback adventures offered on the stunning Flinders Ranges. Yet, the lesser-known western half of South Australia is a Eyre & Yorke Peninsulas, and the Gawler Ranges 28-Sep-2021 1/15 https://www.odysseytraveller.com.au Australia 1300 888 225 New Zealand 0800 440 055 [email protected] worthy rival for an Australia vacation, offering the pristine coasts of the Yorke Peninsula and Eyre Peninsula – often strikingly under developed compared to the East Coast of Australia – and the rugged landscapes of the Gawler Ranges. Delve deeper, and the visitor will find a fascinating journey and often unexpected South Australian history as they travel to this unique destination. This, like all Odyssey Traveller small group tours is limited to 15 people. Odyssey Traveller’s Australian tours are small group outback tours for seniors, designed for mature travellers who want an in-depth and authentic experience of their chosen destination. Since 1983, we have specialised in bringing Australian travellers to the world: now, our goal is to let you again rediscover your own country. We don’t just go from tourist stop to tourist stop, but aim to get off the beaten path, bringing to life some of the less-explored regions on your chosen Outback Australia tour. We want you to see Australia through new eyes as you travel, learning about geology, Aboriginal culture, native wildlife and local history as you pass through the ‘Wild West’ landscapes of Southern Australia . Beginning and ending in Adelaide, this tour of South Australia takes us on a roughly circular route to the west of the city. We first head north to Port Augusta, before exploring the Gawler Ranges, which protect the Eyre Peninsula from the arid heat of the desert to the north. This Australian tour then explores the Eyre Peninsula, a broad triangle shaped peninsula on the western side of the Spencer Gulf, protruding into the Southern Ocean. Finally, the last few days of our Australia tour explores South Australia‘s Yorke Peninsula, a boot-shaped peninsula surrounded by the Spencer Gulf to the west and the Gulf St Vincent to the east. South Australia is well-known as the driest Australian state. On our Australian outback tour, we will pass through arid landscapes, with no rivers and only ephemeral creeks and drainage lines. Much of the water supply for the two peninsulas is piped from Morgan, on the Murray River. These regions nonetheless successfully support agriculture. To the north of the Princess Highway and the Eyre Peninsula, sheep grazing is the main form of farming; while cropping becomes Eyre & Yorke Peninsulas, and the Gawler Ranges 28-Sep-2021 2/15 https://www.odysseytraveller.com.au Australia 1300 888 225 New Zealand 0800 440 055 [email protected] increasingly important on the Eyre and Yorke peninsulas. Gawler Ranges: Having met the tour leader and your fellow travellers in Adelaide city on the first day of our guided outback Australia tour, on the second day we head to the city of Whyalla on the west of the Spencer Gulf, stopping for lunch in Port Augusta, the ‘crossroads of Australia ‘. Australia ‘s ‘steel city’, Whyalla juxtaposes the industrial landscapes with the striking coastline of the Spencer Gulf. The town – previously known as Hummock Hill – was established in 1901 by the Broken Hill Proprietary Company (BHP) as the terminus of a tramway transporting iron ore from the Middleback Ranges (nearby on the Eyre Peninsula ) for use as a flux in the lead smelters at Port Pirie. Whyalla became a major centre of industry after World War II, home to the biggest shipyards in Australia until their closure in 1979. Whyalla today is the fourth-largest city in South Australia (after Adelaide city, Gawler and Mount Gambier ) with a population of around 21, 000. The town continues to export iron ore and steel, and manufactures industrial chemicals. The steel and shipping history of Whyalla can be explored in a number of museums, including the HMAS Whyalla, the first ship built at the Whyalla shipyard in 1941. From Whyalla we head west to Mt Ive Station in the Gawler Ranges , stopping at the Middlebark Ranges and Iron Nob iron ore areas on the way. The Gawler Ranges and Lake Gairdner are a small southern part of the Gawler Craton, a remarkably stable landmass that has not been subject to tectonic activity for over 1000 million years. It was initially formed by volcanism over 1100 million years ago, which formed the Gawler Ranges, on the southern edge of the craton. The traditional owners of the area are the Gawler Ranges people, a distinct group of families made up from some (but not all) of the Barngarla, Kokatha, and Wirangu people. After European settlement, the area was used by pastoralists. In 2002, it was preserved as the Gawler Ranges National Park . The park was recognised for its striking geological features – particularly the Organ Pipes, an organ-like natural amphitheatre created by volcanic eruptions in the area 1500 million Eyre & Yorke Peninsulas, and the Gawler Ranges 28-Sep-2021 3/15 https://www.odysseytraveller.com.au Australia 1300 888 225 New Zealand 0800 440 055 [email protected] years ago – and abundant unique wildlife, particularly the endangered yellow-footed rock-wallaby and southern hairy-nosed wombat. From the station, the tour makes a day trip to Lake Gairdner , a salt lake just to the north of the Gawler Ranges. The lake – along with a number of surrounding depressions – is a remnant from millions of years ago, when central Australia was covered by a vast inland sea, stretching five hundred kilometres from the Southern Ocean to Menindee, near Broken Hill . Lake Gairdner (160 km by 48 km) is Australia ‘s fourth-largest salt lake. Like Lake Eyre , Lake Gairdner is a dry salt pan, intermittently filled with water . With a glistening white surface, surrounded by red dirt hills, it has a mesmerising and surreal beauty. With a salt layer that reaches up to one metre thick, Lake Gairdner is regarded as one of the best places in the world for land speed records. The lake plays host to the annual Dry Lake Racers event, held in the reliably-dry March, which attracts speed racers who make this journey from all around Australia . Eyre Peninsula tour: After the Gawler Ranges, this outback tour for seniors heads south, taking the visitor through the striking natural landscapes and pristine beaches and waters of South Australia‘s Eyre Peninsula. Extending from Whyalla in the east, down to Port Lincoln, and through to Streaky Bay and Ceduna to the west (after which begins the Nullarbor Plain and the great Australian outback) the Eyre Peninsula region offers a range of landscapes, from the calm waters and white sands of the Spencer Gulf to rugged surf beaches on the western side of the peninsula , open to the heavy oceanic swells and waves of the Southern Ocean in the Great Australian bight. The landforms on the western side are defined by rugged cliffs and steep inclines to the sea. For this reason, most of the ports we encounter on our small group tour are on the eastern side of the peninsula. The rolling hills observed on the Eyre Peninsula tour are part of mallee country . ‘Mallee woodlands’ have been listed by the Australian Department of Environment and Energy as one of the 32 ‘Major Vegetation Groups’ of Australia. Mallee country is defined by the Eyre & Yorke Peninsulas, and the Gawler Ranges 28-Sep-2021 4/15 https://www.odysseytraveller.com.au Australia 1300 888 225 New Zealand 0800 440 055 [email protected] predominance of the mallee eucalyptus, a stocky eucalyptus with several stems, which grows on semi-arid soil. Mallee lands have a Mediterranean climate – hot, hot summers, and cool winters – and are often defined by the absence of on-ground freshwater (including on the Eyre Peninsula ). Australia ‘s mallee spreads in a belt across the south of Australia, centring around the Murray River in western Victoria and eastern South Australia, the Eyre Peninsula west of Adelaide, and the ‘wheat belt’ of Western Australia . Dismissed by European explorers as ‘dreary’ and ‘desolate’, the Mallee lands of the Eyre Peninsula supported the Naou Aboriginal people for tens of thousands of years before European settlement. In order to deal with the absence of fresh water, they exploited underground soaks, wells, and rock waterholes. Despite this, the Naou had access to sufficient, even abundant food , using fire-stick farming to create plains of silky grass that attracted native wildlife. The Eyre Peninsula was first charted by the English Matthew Flinders and the French Charles Baudin, who were both circumnavigating the Australian coast in 1801-2. The two explorers met on the Fleurieu Peninsula , near Adelaide, and as men of science, put their political rivalries aside (Britain and France were then at war) to exchange information and work together to chart the last stretch of the Australian coastline.